THEME OF THE ISSUE: OUR COMMON BALTIC 2005
INSPIRING MEETINGS AT OUR COMMON BALTIC 2005
By Katrin Hammarlund, CCB International Coordinator
Between 27 June and 3 July 2005, participants from Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus gathered to learn more about the
Baltic Sea in CCB's summer course Our Common Baltic (OCB). The aim of the course is to teach CCB activists in the ecology of the Baltic Sea, its
environmental and cultural situation as well as the traditional life-styles of people living in the Swedish archipelago mixed with modern sustainability
options. And, very importantly, to exchange experiences as well as to strengthen the network of CCB. The course has been held for 13 years in cooperation
with Stensund folkhighschool outside Trosa, Sweden.
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THE BALCTIC SEA IS OUR COMMON BALTIC INDEED
By Ekaterina Varzugina, project manager at the Centre for Environmental Initiatives, St.Petersburg
In the end of June 2005, twelve environmental activists from Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, and Sweden met in Stensund Folk College,
Trosa, Sweden, to take part in the traditional CCB summer course "Our Common Baltic". All participants had traveled through different routes to Sweden and
on Sunday, 26th of June, they were arriving and meeting each other, one by one. Some of them were just newly acquainted, others knew each other from previous
ecological events. But anyway, in a day this group of different people became united and friendly, ready for upcoming events and different tasks which we would
carry out under the leadership of our teacher, Ms. Eva Jansson.
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NEWS
Map of Baltic River Basins
The Centre for Environmental Initiatives, Russia, has published the Map of Baltic River Basins. This 70x100 cm poster
shows all major river basins in the Baltic Sea drainage area. The river basins that belong to different parts of the Baltic Sea have shades of different
colours. The map also shows the canals that connect the Baltic Sea drainage area to the surrounding basins.
Please contact cei@cei.ru to order the map
by mail.
Map of Baltic River Basins
HELCOM launches a common Baltic maritime traffic monitoring system
The Helsinki Commission today officially launched an Automatic Identification System (AIS) for monitoring maritime
traffic in the Baltic Sea on 1 July. It is an automatic VHF radio-based system which enables the identification of the name, position, course,
speed, draught and cargo of every ship of more than 300 gross tonnes sailing in the Baltic Sea, and displays all available data over a common
background map of the region.
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Lithuania, Russia for Purer Baltic Sea
Lithuania and Russia expand cooperation in protecting the ecology of the Baltic Sea, says the protocol of the meeting of the Joint Lithuanian-Russian
commission for cooperation in environmental protection that ended in Vilnius on 28 June.
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Sweden launches marine environment strategy
Swedish environment minister Lena Sommestad has announced the introduction of a national strategy that she describes as "a new way of working with
questions concerning the marine environment and making government coordination on the marine environment more effective".
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Baltic Sea Proper oxygen situation getting worse
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High tech protection of European marine environment
Safeguarding the European coastline from natural or man-made pollution crises and harmful alga blooms (HABs) is an
environment protection priority for Europe. The DISMAR project, a new system currently in operational demonstration phase, has brought together
the vast range of data from weather and ocean monitoring stations across Europe. Likely outcomes can now be predicted, enabling the authorities to
best respond to pollution crises. DISMAR stands for Data Integration System for Marine Pollution and Water Quality.
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European Commission - New: Water Information System for Europe
The Water and Marine Unit of the EU DG Environment has launched the first edition of WISE: the Water Information System for Europe. WISE will provide key
information related to water policies on a regular basis. It brings you up to date with developments of activities under the Water Framework Directive Common
Implementation Strategy and other EU water policies. The first edition of WISE is now available at
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/pdf/wise_june_2005.pdf
European Commission - new review of water management projects started
A distinguished panel of international experts has begun a major review of completed EU research projects addressing integrated water resources management
(IWRM). The review is intended to assess the approaches and results of collaborative projects, analyse lessons learned and culminate in recommendations on the
future direction of EU research in IWRM. The review will not provide recommendations on a project level, but on a more general level. The European Commission
is hoping that these recommendations will provide ammunition for its discussions on the thematic research priorities of FP7 that it will have with the Parliament
and Council, as well as the programme committee. The results of the review will be presented to the Fourth World Water Forum taking place in March 2006 in Mexico.
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Poland - Vistula River Basin programme
A new programme will test public participation techniques in upper Vistula pilot catchment area in southeastern Poland. The experiences from the testing
exercise will be used to prepare guidelines for effective public participation methods at different planning levels, in particular regional and local.
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COMING EVENTS
Call for participations for the 4th World Water Forum
The Secretariat of the 4th World Water Forum (4th WWF) is currently gathering information and applications for potential topic sessions at the 4th WWF from 16 to 22 March 2006. In order to focus the debate, the forum is organized around 5 framework themes, which attempt to represent the most important global water challenges, and 5 crosscutting perspectives.
There will be 30 sessions a day, and each day will focus on one of the framework themes, making a total of approximately 150 sessions during the forum.
Any organization interested in organizing a topic-session at the 4th WWF should fill in the appropriate form before 15 August 2005 at
http://www.worldwaterforum4.org.mx/home/session.asp?lan
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Call for contributions to ''New water policies - the Water Framework Directive'' symposium
EWA and ADECAGUA (Spanish National Association) are organising the program of the international symposium ''New water policies - the Water Framework Directive'',
which will take place in Barcelona (Spain) on the 17th and 18th May 2006. The organisers are looking for presentations and speakers for this symposium. Each
presentation should introduce a strategic view for the future, not an historical review. Official languages for the symposium will be Spanish and English, with
simultaneous translation. Please send proposals and a short Curriculum Vitae (two pages maximum), to Dr. Gamaliel Martinez,
gamamtnez@ya.com, before 1st October
2005. Selection will be made before 1st November 2005 and the speakers will receive information before December.
First EWA Brussels Conference: European River Basin Management Policy; 25 October 2005
The European Water Association (EWA) invites you to participate in the first annual Brussels Conference to be held on 25 October 2005 in Brussels.
Topic: European River Basin Management Policy. The conference will give an overview of the progress of implementing the Water Framework Directive (WFD),
including the work of international river commissions, prospects of specific European regions, the situation in new EU Member States and discussions concerning
daughter Directives to the WFD. You may benefit from direct contact with experts and members from the European Commission. Participate and play a vital part in
the discussion process!
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Please find other CCB Newsletter issues here.
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